Chapter 4: The Emir Leads

"Master, I have never said this before, and I never thought I would, but ... No, Master! You must not do that."

Kamal Qumsiyeh, the Head of Protocol nodded his reluctant agreement with Ghada Baroud, the Advisor on Foreign Affairs. Both men feared for their jobs, and possibly for their lives. Open defiance of an absolute ruler such as the Emir is not generally a career enhancing move; on the contrary, it can often be life threatening. They looked over to General Mustapha, the Military Advisor for support, but he was much more diplomatic.

"Your triumphant entry into Tradagha, the capital of Tirfil, at the head of your troops will be splendid, Master, but it is the job of men like me to lead the troops into the battle to make that entry possible," said the old man.

"I appreciate receiving honest advice from my ministers, but I am not bound to act as they wish. Border skirmishes are one thing, but if I declare war, then I must put my own self at the same risk as the men I order to fight," said the Emir, then hardening his tone of voice a little he added, "And that is an end of it!"

It took the army seven days to reduce Tirfil to a chaotic ruin and the last resistance was at Khan Habib's Palace in Tradagha. This was the old walled and fortified citadel which had survived from the days of tribal desert warfare five hundred years earlier. If the Emir had wished it, his artillery could have reduced the whole edifice to rubble in a matter of hours, but the Emir had other ideas. He really didn't want to kill the Khan, but rather to humiliate him utterly, and he had some respect for the antiquity of the Palace's architecture.

The final assault on the Palace started with a very old-fashioned ploy. The body of a dead Tirfilese General, in full uniform, was lobbed over the wall. Then every time a movement was seen on the walls a marksman would let off just one round at the spot. The hit rate was satisfactorily high. Within the hour the gates had been opened and the Khan's personal guard had surrendered to a man.

The Emir had indicated his willingness for the people of Tirfil to be taught a lesson they would never forget. His soldiers ran riot through the city.

Half the dragoons had been released from duty and were out in one of the suburbs, enjoying themselves. The raced through the streets in their armoured cars, stopping at any house which took their fancy and charging into it to loot any easily portable valuables, and then moving on. They were well armed but there was little resistance, and at first they were only after jewellery and the like. It surprised the cowed population that they did not steal any money, but the victors believed, rightly, that Tirfilese banknotes were useless to them. They had no intention of paying for anything in the captured city, and they knew that the currency would be worthless to them when they returned to Kobekistan.

As the day wore on they began to look for more tangible rewards, and the armoured cars soon contained a few choice prisoners. These were usually young, and mostly women. All had been tested by the victorious troops for sexual compatibility before being dragged from their homes to become the private property of the dragoons. Back in Kobekistan these would be sold or kept in the men's harems according to taste. The young men would mostly be castrated and become eunuchs when they had outgrown their appeal as catamites.